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4305.
1 3/4.
03030.
The readings, something that we've often taken up before, but at least.
In my memory, we've often taken it up before, but I feel the need of it again, at least in my own soul, and I wonder if others would agree. The address to Philadelphia in Revelation 3, and if time permits, perhaps going on to lay a Don't think anyone would argue that we are living in the last days, and Satan seems to be doing a great deal.
And discouraging those who have known the truth of God and had it available to them for a long time.
We're thankful for so much interest in the truth in different parts of the world where perhaps at least as far as we know, they haven't known that truth as well as some of us have here. But there seems to be a need to, uh, encourage our own souls, those with us who live in lands where we have.
Had the truth and have been able to have it before us for a long time.
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What my brethren think about that?
They could be very appropriate, brother.
Thank you.
Revelation chapter 3.
And maybe we could just start out by reading the address to Philadelphia, which of course begins with verse seven and then down to the end of verse 13. And again, not to intrude if some other brother has something because there are several reading meetings, but I would suggest the possibility of time permits of maybe going on to Laodicea. But we'll see how we get along.
Maybe some brother could read it for us.
From Revelation chapter 3, starting at verse seven and going on to the end of verse 13.
And to the Angel of the church in Philadelphia, right these things, that he that is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shut it, and shut it, and no man open it. I know thy works.
Behold, I am right before thee an open door, and no man can shudder.
For thou hast a little strength, and has kept my word, and has not denied my name.
Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do not. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee, because thou has kept the word of my faith.
I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
Behold, I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast.
That no man take thy crown.
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God. And I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said under the church.
Might just make a brief comment or two as an introduction.
We know, of course, that these assemblies, detailed to us in Revelation chapters two and three, were actual assemblies that existed at the time that John wrote, and in that way John addresses them.
Each according to the state that they were in and as we noticed in verse 7 here, and the same is true of all the others. He addresses the Angel of those churches which I believe would speak.
Speak of those and responsibility and those assemblies.
And anyone at any time in the history of the church could read these addresses and.
Be alternately encouraged or perhaps exercised.
By what is written here.
The Lord though, and we need to recognize this, appears to these assemblies as a judge mainly.
Revelation is a book of judgment, but before God brings out all the awful judgments that will take place.
On those who have rejected Christ. And of course, Revelation is mostly the judgment of God on apostate Christendom, although it includes others, but it's mostly directed against apostate Christendom.
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Before God deals in judgment with those that are lost, we read in Peter that judgment must begin at the House of God. And so God gives his estimate of what he sees in that which professes to bear his name. And so there is plenty of encouragement here, but in ways that.
Shall we say, relate to the Lord as a judge so that you don't get a lot of the grace of God brought out here or the Ways and Means of recovery and so on, as much as God's estimate of what he sees and what his, uh.
Feelings are about it.
Of course, in the larger picture, we know that these seven assemblies represent a panoramic history of the professing church right from the time that the apostles were taken away until the time that the Lord comes, and so we see various epoch.
Excuse me? Various epochs in the Church's history represented by these seven churches in the chronological order in which they're given.
And so I believe Philadelphia brings before us the results of a wonderful recovery that God graciously gave back a little less than 200 years ago, a gracious recovery of the truth that had been given at the beginning. And there is an open door given for those who are willing to walk in it. And it's a tremendous encouragement, isn't it?
Tremendous encouragement.
Uh, but there are warnings too, which we need to take to heart.
And so the address to Philadelphia is God's estimate of that which seeks to.
Which seeks, as we read here, to keep His word and not deny His name. And it is a tremendous encouragement for you and me in the last days.
As the Lord gives us the opportunity to answer to what He has given us and what He is doing here in the address of Philadelphia.
Certain characteristics of the various churches that we.
I noticed that Sardis, uh.
We are losing up their first love.
Delta seems like a new departure. Umm.
A lot of individuals are mentioned in the previous churches, but this is really a collective movement.
Uh, spoken to a church and uh.
Now we have to be very humble about this.
Because, uh, we're part of the ruling of Christendom today.
But the Spirit of God can begin to work a time by 5/18/30.
In a remarkable way, Uh.
To recover much through.
But I haven't been, uh, very recent in the systems event in Christendom generally.
And, uh, it was characterized by a return.
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Not to a Apostolic power or gift.
But a return to the principles of the truth that has been given to us at the beginning.
That which was from the beginning.
As the fossil joint management.
Uh, we are to, uh, return to.
Uh, large measure in the earlier churches.
There was a partnership from the Apostles, Doctrine and Fellows.
And then when you wrote it in the speech.
Every century after the apostles we see departure had come in many of the truths the apostles thought were not being held.
So in memory of a few, uh, work of the security costs.
To recover.
Those troops to restore the church to its primitive, not the primitive power of position.
That was according to.
Non lying in the beginning.
Unless we have portrayed in the.
In the future of Philadelphia.
Of course. Uh, no problem and relatively low.
And that was certainly characteristic of the early brethren.
But there are so many instructions for us.
From his church.
That, uh, encourages is our brother will instead, and also warning us because the Judaistic tendencies would still be manifest.
That's no problem with many of the churches.
Judaism. Judaism, uh, principles and practices.
Brought him to the Church of God danger in Philadelphia that happened in too dangerous that happening among us. So there are these exploitations too, as well as the encouragement.
With great UMM privilege and UMM, and as exemplified in Philadelphia.
Comes with great responsibility and.
So we're we're not responsible to keep the assembly ourselves or the responsible to the Lord as the head of the assembly individually. And then as we come together collectively, we will be in this frame of his thoughts. But the there is that sense goes with it of our responsibility about that continued day by day.
Yes, that's.
Very, very true. And uh, so it says at the end, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches or the assemblies. It starts with us as individuals, doesn't it? And then when individuals seek to follow the Lord, they find that the Lord has worked in the hearts of others in order to provide a collective testimony.
And, uh, it's a privilege to be part of that, isn't it?
I would mention.
Too, and I think it is important to see this.
Brother John has mentioned, for example, Sardis and Thyatira Sardis pretty clearly.
His Protestantism, the result of the Reformation, which was a work of God, but Protestantism was not, as John has said.
After the Reformation, much of the of those who threw off the yoke of Roman Catholicism ended up.
Uh, breaking up international churches and small groups and uh, uh, in some ways duplicated the errors that they had departed from.
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Thyatira is pretty clearly Roman Catholicism, no question really about that, but Philadelphia and Laodicea are more a state of soul.
If I could say this and I remember an old brother making the remark, he said I would not want to go around and say that we are in a Philadelphian state. But he said what an awful thing if we're not.
But it's a mistake to equate Philadelphia simply with those that are gathered to the Lord's name. We trust that we do maintain a Philadelphian character, but it is more a state that seeks the Lord, seeks to live up to the light that the Lord has given us, seeks to honor His word and not deny his name. And of course, if there is that real devotedness and real exercise in the heart, I believe God gives more light as we go on.
But it is a wonderful encouragement to us in these last days.
As John has been bringing out to realize that God has been pleased to make available to us all the preciousness of the truth that he gave at the beginning. Not the power, no, a little straight, not the power of Pentecost, but the enjoyment of all of the precious truth that God gave right at the beginning.
That right, Right, Wally.
I believe that's very good.
I was noticing that the one that's deep.
Is holy and is true. Now this is the person that we need to be listening to.
He that is holy, you know, one that is holy is one who not only abhors evil.
But he loves that, which is good.
And of course, this is true of the Lord Jesus.
And He is the one who is true. I was noticing that first John 5 and verse 21St John 5 and 20. And we know that the Son of God is come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true.
Even in his Son, Jesus Christ, This is the true God of eternal life. The Lord Jesus could say I am the truth. How wonderful it is in a world in which we live, when we may pick up a newspaper and we don't know exactly what to believe because we're hearing much of fake news today. We can sit here in a meeting like this with our Bible open.
And we can listen to him.
It is true the Lord Jesus speaks to us through His Word, So what a wonderful privilege is ours to be gathered here and to have His truth unfolded to us.
Through His Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
And that's particularly.
Apropos in the day in which we are living because.
We are living in days where many people are saying there is no true standard of holiness. There is no absolute truth. Truth is whatever works for you. And you can have your truth and I can have my truth. And even if they contradict each other, well, I that's all right somehow.
That works for you, so you you go along with that.
But truth by definition excludes what is not the truth, and holiness excludes what is unholy, isn't it? And so, as you say, Wally, the Lord has to be the reference point, whether it's holiness or whether it's truth, and in every moral and spiritual consideration.
Thy word is truth, isn't it? Do we get in John's Gospel? There is absolute truth, there is absolute holiness. Not that you and I ever attained to it perfectly down here, but there is one to whom God?
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Refers our hearts and causes us to look and in a world around us with a shifting morality and rather unusual ideas of what is true and what isn't true, and ideas of truth that can change with whatever situation arises. How wonderful to have that on which we can rely, as you say, and which is clear and definite, the Lord Himself and His precious word.
And they stand for all time, no matter what man is doing.
The Lord Jesus himself said in John 14, I am the way and the truth and the life.
So that's one where Jesus himself, who is uh, as well as pointed out.
In in the first verse that we read, the wonder was the one who was holy and true.
He is also as we read.
These are these chapter one at the end of Ephesians 1.
In verse 22 we read that God has given Him to be the head over all things to the church through the assembly which is His life full of dependence. Fill us All in all.
If he is the head over by a believers and then he is also the head over each individual assembly.
We're reading about Philadelphia in particular and the other and the head over each local assembly that has gathered to designate in the name of the word, Jesus Christ in the world today. Hmm. And as having him as head over each assembly to his assembly localized.
And we have.
OK, our view course is going to fall back in.
On him and allow him to be.
In fact that sometimes we I believe we get in the way of allowing him to.
I'm ahead of a local assembly. He has the answer that we often are trying to find the problem. He is the answer he has.
The mind that he is, the mind of God. He knows. He knows the beginning to the end of every situation that might arise.
YW instead of trying to figure out answers ourselves, get down on our knees without him to show it to my key of the head.
But I'm going to provide some explanation of what the seven years desire.
Well, we find that expression here in Revelation and, uh, I believe it's simply the thought of perfection in power and intelligence, uh, God.
Always acts in Trinity and.
The order normally is the purposes and councils originated by God the Father, carried out by the Son, but the Holy Spirit, the power by which they are carried out. And so we know, of course, there is only one Spirit of God, but I believe the number seven simply indicates the, uh, perfection of power, uh, to be able to carry out what God is intending.
I don't think it it's any more than that.
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Instead of branches.
Candlestick itself and then it speaks of kind of seven divine attributes of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom understanding.
Yes, I believe so. Yes, it's, it's, it's expanded here. And of course in the Old Testament, they didn't know as much about the Spirit of God as we do, but uh, yes, it's, uh, it's, it's, uh, referring here, of course, to the Lord himself.
And, uh, the power that would rest in him. Yes, that's very good, Matt.
Is the Spirit of God has seen and operating in a different way of like anything that was going to say in the this was recalled. It's not the formation of the lobby of Christ last year.
Open and shut it and shut it.
OK, Sir, Well, we kind of need to be applied back to the gospel and, uh, I think it's, uh, at this place the Lord had spoken already opened the doors and different places for the gospel and, uh, be open to the door. No man can shut it.
Uh, but in relation to the Church of Philadelphia.
There was a uh.
A manifestation.
Of the truth.
That was opposed to.
The whole system of man's warriors.
It was half really a.
A movement that, uh.
Condemned the whole.
Uh, structure of the man's religion.
Non interference and the things we've got. It was now a work of the Spirit of God and.
There was an incitement to hypothesis.
Uh, that we're looking for no one before.
Uh, the early residents, uh, had.
Corporate meetings.
The Castle of.
I'm, uh, very welcome to my sister, uh, environment and, uh.
Lady Powers Court Lady's power support.
Movement in those early years to understand.
The meaning of prophecy before it was shrouded in confusion, it was.
No, uh, understanding of the position of the Church of God distinct entity with a heavenly holy and non Harvard as a world system and this is not understood or the position of the Kingdom of God and so on in those early years amongst the those that were just coming out from the systems of land.
That we're seeing the truth.
Of the of the of meeting the numbers of the body of Christ. These truths in relation to uh.
Church of God and its position in this world.
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And, uh, for God's purpose is in regard to like the establishment of, uh, the Kingdom and power and glory, uh.
Basically information of Israel being historic to me to say.
Uh, Laurie, Minnesota.
Position in the Millennium, all of these rules have been lost in Christmas, but they were revised. They were recovering as though it was early days. You might prefer to be like the CEO David is an openness kind of nomad each other for the street and the opening company through subscriptions and and the relation of the church and Israel was a real divine opening there.
And the more intended blessing and that all of Christendom.
Under uh Isaiah 57, umm 15.
We can replace that.
Name the holiness of the water season there, I think.
But then in the state of Seoul with those umm.
There will be any president.
Uh, Isaiah 6715.
I don't see it behind. It's lost in one that inhabits eternity.
His name is holy as well as a high and holy place. With him all the visitors of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the conviction.
It's almost, you know, if you say somebody something is holy and true, it's.
Seems like the grass.
A brass wall, unroachable but here in Isaiah.
We see the approach.
I worked with the grace of God in our souls, in our hearts, and that contrite, humble.
Spirit and then it has revived the spirit of the humble. I'm not sure what that means, but maybe there's a net debt in the necessary work of uh.
I got 30 work on the soul of uh.
Restoration.
I'd really rather it's really we're a temporary, I believe, uh, there's surely no MO far more than diversity, but it appears that it means that this early brethren, we've had that spirit about themselves and how wonderful it is for us too, to find our way to that contrite and humble period.
Well, I believe the reviving brother Dave spoken up there, of course is ultimately a reference to Israel, isn't it? Uh, not to get into.
A uh.
Shall I say an exposition of Isaiah? But.
Isaiah 4957 is really God's those chapters. It's God's controversy with Israel for rejecting their Messiah and.
Of course, that includes the 52nd and 53rd chapters, with which we are quite familiar, and so in that sense.
There will come a day when Israel will take that humble and contrite spirit and they will be revived. They don't have that spirit, many of them today, but having been brought through the tribulation and then having been thoroughly and completely devastated by all that goes on in a coming day, they will humble themselves and recognize their Messiah, the one that they rejected so long ago.
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But it's the same principle, I believe, and it's a good thing to remember for us. Uh, Brother John was bringing it out and it's often forgotten today. I say that to my own heart that it is a mistake to try and assume the power of Pentecost. It's a mistake to try and think to ourselves, well, now.
Everything has reverted back to the way it was at the beginning.
And if I can say this and it's true, sometimes there gets to be the thought among those who seek to walk in the truth. Well, the great House of Christendom is in a big mess, and there is a lot of bad teaching out there and a lot of bad behavior. But thank God there's one corner of it where things are done right. And by implication, even though we don't say it out loud, the thought is.
That's where we are, as gathered to the Lord's name.
No, brethren, 1000 times, no. The failure will be most evident where the truth is sought to be maintained. And if there is an attempt to try and set up and display the same position, the same unity, everything that God gave at the time of Pentecost, it will not work. We have to be in the position of recognizing the failure of the church.
Once we're in that attitude of soul, we don't limit what the Spirit of God can do. And we have seen wonderful blessing. And there is wonderful blessing today too, not only in the gospel, but there are those today that are laying hold of the truth that have never had it before and are grasping it with their heart and their soul and enjoying it and walking in it.
I trust we are too, but the thought must remain in our souls. It is a position of humility, recognizing the failure of the Church and the failure of which we are part, and so we mustn't forget that.
Second Timothy.
Two, uh, of stocks have been closed. Is that all on the board have a secure heart? And I believe that's what those brethren were doing, uh.
And the Word answered them by the Spirit of God.
Expressing them to start meeting together together. So the name of the word Jesus Christ.
And I believe every Christian today.
That needs to every one of us needs to call on them all on the Lord end of a pure heart and know his direction, not just not to pretend that we are something already.
But but to be in a in a state of humility where we.
When we realized and and confessed that.
That we have a failure rather than respect for part of that failure, but as we call the Lord out of a pure heart and this applies to every believer, not just so that's in this room. I believe that's the Lord will enjoy that believer and lead him to be gathered in the name of social working.
Meet Willie Guy in touch.
And the meat where he teaches away and I think a meat person.
Is one who's willing to sacrifice their own will, their own way, for God's way. God's desire today is exhaust no other name but the Lord Jesus. And I believe that the assembly today ought to be a little preview.
Of the Millennium.
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Because we know during the Millennium, it tells us that the, uh, the haughtiness of man will be.
Downtown, the lofty looks of man will be humble, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
And that's exactly how it ought to be in December today.
And it's our privilege to consult Christ.
And God appreciates that.
And.
I believe.
It's only by His grace that we're able to do this.
But to exalt Christ?
To make everything a fit.
And I think this is what we're seeing in Philadelphia.
Tells us here that they.
You had a little strength, you know, and yeah, to the world.
Didn't look like much of that movement or testimony.
But God appreciates that which the world does not. We need to look at things from God's perspective.
Not from a worldly perspective, because the world wants to resolve man and God wants to consult man.
But to keep his word and not to deny his name.
That's a challenge that some might throw up their hands from the Spirit and say well.
That's too much. We live in such a wicked world. How are we supposed to fulfill this?
Well, the fact is, God never asked us to do anything.
But what gives us the ability to do it?
He loves us too much to ask us to live for Him and to follow Him if He don't give us the strength and the power to do it.
So we need to bank on that, you know, and lean hard on him.
And if he opened the door?
There's nobody that's gonna shut I I notice here it says no man can shut it. But I notice that Mister Darby's translation. No one. I'm sorry, Not even Satan.
That's what he's trying to do today.
English has monitor Christ collective testimony to crisis. Hmm.
With respect to the Church.
I believe next to Christ himself that the heart of God is the church is dearest to him.
It's our privilege to seek to.
And they'll act on the principles of God's Word, and we can't take any credit.
And like other days says, there has to be a humiliacy about the whole issue.
But the Lord is high into them that are the humble spirit, you know, save such a few of the contract spirit.
Like you mentioned a little bit, uh, while you're speaking out there, but, uh.
We can't, uh, we can't go back to.
The way things were in the first of Acts, when the the church was born, that power that was given then, we don't have that today. We're in the day of weakness.
But uh, I was thinking of Haggai chapter 2.
And uh, there is a parallel there because.
Uh, when they rebuilt the temple.
It was in weakness the remedy and.
They went back to build it and uh, those that remember the first temple, they wept.
When they remembered the former glory of the first temple, but the younger ones that were building that temple, they wept too when they realized that they were building up.
Something that God took pride in, God took, appreciated, and God glory did not. But even though we're in the day of weakness today, we can't go back to Acts. What doesn't diminish is God's glory.
Reading there in the Haggai chapter 2.
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Verse 9 This is the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former says the Lord of hosts. And in this place like his peace said the Lord of hosts. What a wonderful promise to them and the Lord delighted in that and I believe in a day of weakness, uh.
The Lord can be more glorified if we seek to go on for Him then in perhaps the day of prosperity.
So it's encouraging to see that even though that we are in a day of weakness, we should be living for the for the glory of God, should be first of all in our lives. And he can take pleasure in it and he will give peace and he'll give prosperity to us.
But it's seeking the Lord's prophet first. It's His Holiness.
This is truth, it's his righteousness and we are gathered to him and I believe that there's much blessing today among us if we seek to to honor the Lord in our pathway. He did the he needed the exportation, he died. He was a lawful that really brought me for them.
Uh.
That was spoke to their, uh, their conscience.
Umm, they were back in the right place.
Philadelphia. They were back in the right position, but they weren't in the right state.
As you read the 1St chapter of the API, you'll see that they were devoting much of their time and energy.
To the brinks of, uh, this life and their homes which they were renovating and, uh, making very comfortable, but uh, totally neglecting the House of the Lord and the Lord's interests.
They were in the right place, but they weren't in the right state. And so the Lord raised up KDI with those memorable words. Consider your ways.
And he spoke nearly together pointedly to them, dealt with love, and they listened to him and he said.
In a short time that they resumed the work of building the talent, uh, and, and in these states, mainly because of the prophetic, uh, uh.
Processing prophetic uh.
That's a huge, tremendously of the, umm, the profit, ABI.
And, uh, and then we establishment of the house and how hard came in and and.
Exercise in their conscience any day. Restore their reiteration.
Pretty good.
Well, we, Al, we have the key of David here in our chapter, and it's already been alluded to. Some may wonder what that expression means. It's taken from the book of Isaiah, again, the 22nd chapter of Isaiah, and there we won't take time to read it, but there were two men in that chapter, one man by the name of Shebna.
Had a prominent position and this was in the time of Hezekiah and.
Uh, he was for a while used of the Lord, but then he too departed in spirit from what he ought to have been doing and ended up, uh, doing the very kinds of thing that they were doing in Haggai's time. And in that sense, he was, he was, uh, he ended up a failure. But then there was another man, Eliakin, who was faithful.
And the Lord.
Gives testimony to Eliakim as to his faithfulness and his reward. And the Spirit of God, if we could use this expression, just slides right from Eliakim right into that which could refer only to the Lord himself. And then talks about the Lord who was the going to be the nail in a sure place, and who was to have the key of David, who would open and no man could shut, and so on. And again, no doubt referring to the millennial day.
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In the future. But what I believe is significant there is that there was a man, a faithful man, whom God could, as we say, almost identify with the Spirit and the attitude of Christ himself. And that's what the Lord looks for. And so we emphasize, and I think it's important.
Philadelphia is not positioned. It is a state of soul.
It's a state of soul, it says. Brother Robert was bringing out a calling on the Lord out of a pure heart, not setting my will against that which the Spirit of God seeks to bring before me.
And when I'm in that state of soul, the Lord will give me more and more and more. And so the key of David is held by the Lord. But those who seek to honor him in the day of his rejection, and are willing, if necessary, to swim against the current, they will be identified with him. And as Wally was bringing out.
It's really here.
An opened door, an opened door and no man can shut up. That is, I don't believe God will ever give us truth from his Word and then make it impossible for us to walk in it and carry it out. There are those today who will look at the truth of God and say, well, it's good and it's scriptural and it's nice, but.
Doesn't work today. You can't carry it out today. You can't put it into practice. It just doesn't work.
I remember talking to a sister, I say a dear sister, she wasn't gathered to the Lord's name, but she knew the Lord as her Savior. And she said something like that to me. I replied to her, well, I said, did God really give us something in His word that was going to be so difficult that a believer had to look at what God had told him to do and had to say?
Because of the day in which I live, I can't do it. Does God really do that to us? Does God, if we could use the term I trust with all reverence? Does God mock us as believers by setting something before us that doesn't work?
Well, she kind of backpedaled a little bit and more than a little bit and said, well, no, no, I guess not. Well, I said, where is the problem then? And she was forced to admit, I guess it's with us.
I guess the problem is with us, and that's the way it is, isn't it? And so the thought in our hearts ought to be.
Here is one who is holy, one who is true and graciously at the end of a ruined dispensation he has.
Said is an old brother used to tell us, I want something for myself right at the end of the ruined dispensation, and I am going to restore the opportunity for them to walk in the good of all the preciousness of that which I gave at the beginning. Now he looks for those who say, yes, Lord, I'm willing to walk through that open door and willing to walk in the good of it.
We've got this question. You mentioned a couple of times that the church is not going to resist, go back to the state of Pentecost and we've looked in, in Revelation of its Old Testament scriptures. Are there any other New Testament scriptures that would tell us that or any other, any other new tax descriptions that we would point to?
That would tell us that God is.
The days of Pentecost, uh, and, and the power of the church that way are, are are not gonna be restored.
01:00:01
Am I clear in my question or very clear?
Well I believe right here in this chapter all we see it where the Lord says in the next verse in verse 8.
Thou hast a little strength. God doesn't say that at at the time of Pentecost there was real power, there was demonstration of power and there was a unity that does not exist today. And if we go back to the 20th of Acts, I would suggest we see it again.
Where the apostle Paul predicts what is going to happen and he says in Acts 20 and verse 29.
For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock also of your own self shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. And then he says in verse 32, And it's very important, he doesn't say, I commend you to the church. No, I commend you to God.
And to the word of his grace, because when we get to second Timothy and we don't have time perhaps to go into all of the scriptures that would speak to this when we get to second Timothy.
In, in, in first Timothy we find in chapter 3 and verse 15, and I know we're jumping around here, but in first Timothy 3 and 15, we find a House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, the church.
The assembly is equated as to those that represent those that are part of it to the House of God.
And the assembly is the filler and ground of the truth. What do we get in Second Timothy?
No mention of the church, not even mentioned in the whole book. And when the house is mentioned, it's not even called the House of God. It's simply termed a great house. And it tells us there that in verse 20 of chapter 2, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wooden diver and some to honor and some to dishonor.
And what does it say? Get out there and try and clean up the whole house and straighten it out? No.
Verse 21. If a man therefore purge himself from these, that is, from vessels to dishonor, he shall be a vessel unto honor sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. So I can't leave the great house, nor is there any instruction to try and straighten out the whole of the great house, but rather to purge myself from that.
Which is not of God, and so.
To try and pretend that we have the power of Pentecost and that we can re establish the position and the unity the way they did in the beginning.
To use one of our good writers, and I believe he made the point well, he said to try and do that will result.
And these are his words, not mine, he said. There will be nothing but a mess and a failure.
God will not take that place with us. In order to have His strength, we must be in the place of His mind, and that is in the recognition of the failure of the church. And that's always God's way. When Israel failed, God didn't restore them back to the way they were at the beginning. He never healed the division between the 10 tribes and the two tribes when they were carried back into captivity.
God never brought them back and made them a sovereign nation again, But as we've been reading in Haggai, He brought them back and gave them the opportunity to answer to everything that God had given at the beginning. And when they did so, they found that the Lord was the same. And there was even more faithfulness than there had been in some of the best days of the kings. It says about Josiah's Passover that there had been no Passover like that since the days of Samuel.
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But when you come to Ezra, Nehemiah's time, you find they kept the Feast of Tabernacles in a proper way, and it hadn't been done like that until way back in the days of Joshua. So when God gives something and it fails.
It's his pattern never to restore it to what it was at the beginning, but rather to bring it back in a small character as a testimony to the failure, but having all the characteristics of what God gave at the beginning.
So I believe all of these scriptures would point to the fact that no, God doesn't restore things to the to the way they were at Pentecost. But, and it's a very important, but God doesn't, we don't limit what God can do by his spirit when the failure is owned and we take that position. But all too often pride gets in the way and we think that we are back where we were at the beginning if even if we don't say it out loud.
And then there's a humbling that has to come in.
We appreciate all the questions. I have a similar one and I'm wondering if the answer is also to you in the contrast from the introduction we had from the Church of Ethicists and the introduction we had the Church of Service, if you turn back to Revelation chapter 2 and verse one.
Says under the Church of the Angel of Ephesus right these things say it even holdeth the seven stars in the right hand, and you walk it in the midst of the 7th open column candlesticks. He turned back to our chapter chapter 3 and verse one.
Keep in mind that Obsidian health disparities can walk them in the midst of those candlesticks. Emphasis and fairness. It says he did half seven years of God in the seventh period. And I think it was William Kelly that said an emphasis that the holding of stars and walking in the midst of the candlesticks was.
The the dearly church had the inward power of the spirit and the outward authority on earth. And when you get to the Stardust and certainly four stars, but it's hardest it says that you have experienced and he has the seven stars no longer holds and no longer walks amongst them, still has the authority and still has the right to exercise. It's not damaged and we don't see a returning to a point where he began holding his tires or walking among the seven spirits.
Yes, that's very good. And of course, again, not to make it too complicated, but we know up until Thyatira God was looking for recovery, wasn't he? In Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamos the Lord was looking for recovery. And so the word He had hath an ear. Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches is addressed to the whole assembly. But then from Thyatira on that, those words are addressed only to the overcomer.
Because God isn't looking for a recovery after Thyatira, there's a perpetuating of the evil and of the failure, and thus Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea all go on concurrently to the end until the Lord comes. And so, yes, that's very good. It's important to see that too. It's a picture of the fact that things have gone too far for there to be a full recovery.
Of what God gave at the beginning.
162.
To wait for the important story.
When flies and glory of artists play.
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Wandering away.
They resource. You know what I'm talking about.
No, no, no.
Read all the prawns in here.
And I know.
It's a little rainbow.